Journal

Two more of my pastels are traveling without me. No sooner did two pieces return from their working vacation in France, than two more are packing for California. Costa Mesa, to be exact. Half an hour from my birthplace and my friend Vicky's college town, Long Beach.

This is all Vicky's doing, in fact. She suggested that I enter some of my little pastel sketches in the Randy Higbee Gallery 6 Inch Squared show coming up in December. There were only a few days left before the jury deadline, but I jumped at the chance. This would be my first opportunity to get some feedback on my new landscape work, jury style. And, without the risk of applying with untested work to a bread-and-butter art fair.

I didn't have to wait long. This jury had the fastest turnaround ever---results posted a day and a half after the entry deadline. I wish all shows could do that! Today I found out that Foggy Walk Study (above) and Canoe Trail Study will be in the show. A nice bit of validation for my new little project.

If you are lucky enough to be in So Cal during December, and you happen to be in the Costa Mesa area, here are the show details:

This is my first show in Portland in six years, and I'm looking forward to being back. I've heard glowing reports about this show from so many artists; they can't seem to find enough good things to say about it. Sounds like the perfect last show of the season. And since Portland seems to be the microbrewery capitol of the Northwest, there will be plenty for Paul to do, too (when he's not helping me sell art, of course). Nice!

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Bend, Oregon is where you will find me and my art this weekend. Art in the High Desert starts this Friday at 10:00 a.m.

AHD is a wonderfully juried little show in a beautiful---yet convenient---setting. Art booths wind alongside a stream just a few steps from the Shops at the Old Mill in Bend. Since it falls on the weekend before Labor Day, many artists do this show on their way to the Sausalito Art Festival or in my case, Art in the Pearl. So if you can't make it to either of those famously top-notch shows, you can find many of the same amazing artists in Bend.

I've made some new work especially for Bend this year, including some of my ponderosa pine images like Storm's Passing (above). I've also made some new miniature works, including a few landscapes and a tiny pine. Come see these and all of my work this weekend!

First and second, I have been accepted to two great art fairs: one " old" favorite and one new to me. Art in the High Desert(Bend, Oregon) invited me to bring my pastels and oils for the third year in a row. This is an amazing, exclusive, high-quality show and I am thrilled to once again take part. Then I found out my pastels and oils and I would travel to Salem, Oregon for the Salem Art Fair and Festival for the first time this July. The new director received rave reviews for her transformation of this show to a top-notch, artist friendly venue. The list of 2011 artists boasts names you might see at shows like Cherry Creek and Sausalito. I can't wait! (Check out my summer schedule to date on my Art Fairs 2011 page here.)

Third, and very exciting for me, I received a major commission from Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington. Honestly, it has been so long since I submitted work for this project, I had completely forgotten about it! Then out of the blue appeared an email saying I made the final round. A week ago today came the good news: Providence wants a large-scale oil painting (3' x 4') based on my earlier oil, Ascension, pictured above. I'm already well into it---the painting ships in early May, rolled, no less! Fast turnaround for an oil painting, especially one that needs to be dry, but I'll make it.

Not too shabby for one Thursday-to-Thursday week. I remember saying not too long ago that I could really use some good news. Well, there you have it.

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Yes, in case you were starting to wonder (I was!), I do, in fact, still make art. Things have been beyond crazy here, which I will explain in a later post. Suffice it to say that I have added "general contractor" to my list of semi- and/or un-paid occupations alongside "artist," "framer" and "traveling huckster." BUT... I finally forced myself to go clean up my studio and make something before I drove myself and everybody completely batsh*t. In the nick of time, I might add. The result: Aviary No.1 Study, above. Whew.

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This Friday is First Friday! (What happened to September, anyway?) For the October Visual Arts Tour I'll have pastels and oils on display at 1900, the fantastic interior decorators' shop upstairs from my studio. If you've never been to 1900, it is a real treat. It is filled with fabulous and funky furniture, rugs, and decorator's delights of all sorts. I'm bringing as many new works as I could muster at the end of a long and busy show season. Oh and here's a bonus: 1900 is right across the street from Robert Karl Winery. First Friday one-stop shopping!

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Join me and twenty-three other professional artists at five studios this weekend at the Little Spokane River Artist Studio Tour. This wonderful event just keeps getting better!

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Jinkies, the Little Spokane Tour is just over a week away! I am so excited. Last year's tour was a tremendous success, as many of my beloved paintings both old and new found homes.

This year there is one important change: the hours are longer! We will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday September 25th. Other than that, not much has changed but the art. Once again I will be showing in the beautiful screened gazebo at Hulda Bridgeman's studio, and once again, I will bring a mix of new and older work, much of it at special prices for the tour.

I've even created some new pieces just for the event: my three Peachberry mini pastels, above. They were inspired by the abundance of mountain ash berries in our yard. The pastels are only 6" x 6", but I have found some extra-funky silver frames for them which give a striking effect.

[singlepic id=441 w=320 h=210 float=left] In addition, I'll have plenty of larger pastels, some unframed pieces, and a few oils including some little 6x6 "teacup oils." This is always a fantastic event. I hope you can make it!

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It's hard to believe the season is almost done! Sausalito Art Festival is the last of four shows in four weekends, and my final festival of 2010. We're at our hotel, digesting the first of probably several dinners from Lotus Indian Cuisine in San Rafael, and waiting to set up the booth in the morning. This is a fun and busy show and I'm excited to sell some paintings and meet my fellow traveling artist friends one last time this summer. Of course I just ran into half of them in the parking lot after retrieving a missing bra from the car, but that's pretty much how it goes, isn't it?

[singlepic id=435 w=320 h=360 float=left] Art and Glass Fest at Arbor Crest is this weekend. I'll be in my usual spot right by the entrance, with some new work in both oil and pastel, plus a few "classics" for a change of scenery (I spend a lot of time looking at my paintings all summer!)
Arbor Crest is a beautiful winery, and the weekend promises to be beautiful as well. I hope to see you there!

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So that's it for Sun Valley. As always it was beautiful, fun and a bit sleepy.

Luckily it was a bit better for me than last year, when I bought a double booth space and seriously regretted it. This year I decided to minimize costs and make the most of a single space by going up. I extended the tent, and finally put to use the extension walls I bought from another artist at this very show.

Problem was, I bought the walls so long ago I didn't remember exactly what came with them. More to the point, I forgot. I quickly realized as I went to put up the first extension that a crucial piece of hardware was missing. We looked in the box, and found a single item rolling around the bottom---a steel pin with a ridge around the middle. Unfortunately, I needed eight. At that moment I could picture them, in their little case on a shelf in our basement, ten hours northwest.

There was NO WAY I was going to have gone to all the trouble to raise the tent and not use those walls, so we set off to find a replacement in a town without a hardware store. My husband Paul was less than thrilled about this. It turned out to be with good reason.

After a frustrating time looking through densely crowded aisles, he finally spotted some turnbuckles at the local drug/hardware/variety store that appeared to be about the circumference of our pin, except with a hexagonal profile. Thinking the ridges might make the turnbuckles a bit too big, he picked up a file to take off any extra material. I thought they would fit just fine as-is but bought the file, just in case. TWO HOURS of "just in case" later Paul finally finished filing the ridges off of seven, much-tougher-than-they-looked aluminum tubes. The walls went up.

And after that very long, hot and trying setup, Paul had the grace to tell me the booth looked "awesome." Thank you, Paul. Your patience is epic.

p.s.

Later that day we learned that as much as our setup sucked, it could have been worse. Our friend Jody, a jeweler, realized halfway through setup that she had forgotten a crucial part of her display. She actually drove home to get it before the show opened the next morning---four hours each direction. What a life.

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Friday the 13th kicks off the 2010 Sun Valley Center Arts and Crafts Festival! This is one of my longest-running art fair traditions: it will be my fifth consecutive year in the show. I am so excited!

I have to admit last year was a little rough to say the least. The area appeared to be hit hard by the economy, and between that and the unusual stormy weather, attendance was way down. As were my sales. Upon leaving I swore I would skip this year. But, as the jury deadline drew near, suddenly I could only remember how much fun the show is and how much I love the scenery, and the KB burritos, and the people running the show, and the other artist regulars. So much for that!

(OK, I'm having a major deja vu right now. I must be repeating myself from an earlier post. But hey. This is my Sun Valley story at the moment.)

So beyond all the drama previously mentioned, I'll be showing pastels and oils again, including some new work such as Raintree Study No.3, above. I'll also be debuting a taller tent, since I can't stop messing with my display. My original set of Pro Panels included some wall extensions and I realized that with my latest redesign I can actually use them, so I'll be giving that a spin. My long-suffering booth and I hope to see you there!

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When an artist spends as much time online as I do, they tend to accumulate a lot of unsolicited offers. Apply to this show, pay for space on that online gallery, get great deals on framing, have your art reproduced by our company! Most of these emails (many of which are scams) are quickly "filed" and forgotten. But not always.

A few months ago I received an email in near-perfect English from someone claiming to be a representative of a French art magazine. She had seen my art online and wanted the option of posting my artwork in the "Portfolio" section of their website. At least, that was my understanding. I was given a deadline to send hi-res images to be considered for publication.

Requests for hi-res art images out of the blue can be a little unnerving. Is it legit, or is someone planning to send my artwork to be knocked off in China? Why hi-res if the images are being posted on the website? This looked real enough, with a link to the French art magazine Pratique des Arts. Of course it's not hard to link to something in an email---it proves nothing.

I pretty much forgot about it until the submission deadline, when another email asked if I was still interested. I decided to take a chance; I sent the images. And heard nothing. A few months went by and I forgot about it again until some random Tuesday brought a fleeting thought of the French art website. Oddly, that afternoon I received one more email, asking where to send a contributor's copy. Now I was really confused. I thought the images were to be posted in some minor online supplement. Whatever. I forgot about it again.

Arriving home from the Bellevue show yesterday, I opened the mailbox to find a large envelope from France containing an absolutely gorgeous art magazine, unreadable to me but stunning, with amazing pastel work from a collection of international artists. There were Dewfall and Medusa No.2, representing the U.S. on the first two pages of the "Pastellistes du Monde" section. Turning the page I found a pastel by the amazing Sally Strand. Elsewhere a spread on the celebrated Alan Flattman. Here was my work in the company of these incredible artists and an apparent international who's who of pastel. What a thrill! All for something I very nearly didn't do. Maybe a little trust isn't so bad once in a while.

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The Bellevue Artsfair starts this Friday and I couldn't be happier. It's been a long break between shows for summer, so I'm anxious to get back. And Bellevue is one of the best!

This year I'm thrilled to be showing my oil paintings along with my pastels for the first time in Bellevue. And I will have a lot of them after I take down the Metamorphosis show from the Kress Gallery on Wednesday. Show weeks are always busy, but this is especially crazy... after spending today framing and delivering my Alice in Wonderland piece to the Tinman Gallery, I have to take down shows at Pacific Garden Design tomorrow and the Kress on Wednesday before loading the car for the show. Plus the usual million little pre-show details like price tags and artwork lists. And covering my entire studio in plastic so my upstairs neighbor can sand his floors.

SO. Anyway. If you're in the Seattle/Bellevue area this Friday-Saturday-Sunday, come by the Artsfair! It's an amazing show and I will have more new and different work than ever before. The details:

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And now for something else completely different... an Alice-in-Wonderland-inspired piece titled Why Not? which I've just completed for the Tinman Gallery's second annual Oz-vitational. Huh? Well, Year One was an Oz-vitational. This year all of the artwork will be inspired by the childrens' classic, Alice in Wonderland. (Much to the relief of the artists who participated in Year One, I'm sure. Fresh inspiration!)

I'm embarrassed to admit that I had never read Alice in Wonderland nor even seen a movie version until receiving this assignment. I tried both several times as a child and never quite made it through for one reason or another. Luckily for me, a fresh movie came out on DVD just in time for my research. Better still, this particular movie had a CGI Tweedledum and Tweeedledee played by/modeled after the hilarious Matt Lucas, from the seriously funny Little Britain USA.

Anyway, back to my point if I had one. I did stop laughing just long enough to catch an approximately four-second reference to Alice and the Red Queen painting white roses red, and there was my idea. Roses dripping with shiny red paint, forming the shape of the Red Queen's heart surrounded by white roses yet to be painted. This piece and "Alice" works by many wonderful artists will be available for purchase at the show.

The Alice in Wonderland Invitational runs from July 30 through August 21. Opening reception is from 5 - 9 p.m. Friday, August 30.

The Tinman Gallery is located in Spokane's historic Garland District at 811 West Garland Avenue.

[singlepic id=417 w=320 h=460 float=left] Nothing fancy to report here---just spending some time in my studio actually PAINTING! This week I finished six new Teacup Oils to (almost) replace the ones I sold at Artfest. I have promised myself that this will be the last batch this year! Once they're gone, they're gone, until next season. Then, it was over to the pastel side to paint Springdance (left). This piece was actually inspired by one of the Teacup oils. I came up with the idea for it and liked the sketch so much I tried a variation in a small pastel, then went on to make the little cubular oil piece, then worked the small pastel idea into a large piece. Whew!
Next week I plan to revisit my Raintree sketches in oil. I'm curious to see how they will turn out. The little pastel sketches reminded me of a combination of a 1940s barkcloth print and my older bunchgrass pieces--which I've never painted in oil. Here's looking forward to next week and a new challenge!

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Despite more than the normal amount of the Traditional Artfest Rain, Artfest was a great weekend. Friday (the rainiest day) gave artists a chance to catch up with one another. At length. But Saturday and Sunday brought sun and crowds! Thanks to all my customers and friends who support my art habit. Also a big thanks to the Artfest jurors, who honored me with the Tinman Gallery 2-D Merit Award. So nice to know I will be returning to a show that is clearly on the upswing. Which brings me to my last big thank you, again to the jurors, who picked a high-quality, even show.

But, Artfest is over and it's great to get back to the studio! I've missed it lately, since some soundproofing has been going on with the ceiling and everything has been piled up under plastic sheets. But with almost two months until my next show, it was time to put the construction on hold and make the studio back into a studio again.

Art fair season can really mess with creative energy, as getting outside and fiddling with the booth plays perfectly into spring fever. On the flip side, getting to the shows and actually selling some art is the best motivator I know to go paint. This week I played with an idea I've had for a while now, resulting in the two "Raintree" pastels pictured above. They will serve as studies for oil paintings which will, hopefully, be ready in time for Sun Valley.

And, the idea of stopping at twenty-four Teacup Oils is out the window. The Teacup Oils have been to exactly one show and I am already down NINE! So six more mini-canvases are stretched, gessoed and waiting for paint and tea-licious titles. Barely back in the studio and there's more on my plate than I can probably finish before Bellevue. All or nothing... that's the art life.

p.s. Many of the paintings from my booth at Artfest plus a few more are on display at Pacific Garden Design through mid-July. PGD is open to the public, but if you plan to go, give them a call first to be sure someone is there! It's a beautiful space with amazing pots for sale (and garden design, of course).

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Artfest is upon us! Opening this Friday at noon, it runs through Sunday. I'll be there as usual (still don't know what booth!) with new pastels and oil paintings, including my new Teacup Oils - little 6" x 6" x 2" canvases painted on five sides and named after delicious tea flavors both real and imaginary. (Pomegranate Twist, Chamomile Bliss and Guava Mint are shown above)

Something new: this year I will be donating 1% of art festival sales to the ASPCA. I'm calling it my ASPCA Summer of Love. I get asked for a lot of donations every summer from various arts organizations, many of which I know nothing about. This year I decided to choose where my donations went. Since I love animals enough not to eat or wear them, the ASPCA seemed like a good place to start. More on this later.

In the meantime, come to Artfest, enjoy the day, and support the arts by buying real art from real artists!